Tuesday, 30 August 2022

 Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:14): Last week I had the great pleasure of visiting the women’s legal service to speak directly with them about the critical assistance that that community legal centre provides. The women’s legal service assists women experiencing disadvantage to address predominantly their legal issues, but usually it is not just legal issues that people have. They have a multidisciplinary integrated practice model, meaning they provide wraparound services where clients are assisted by lawyers as well as social workers and financial counsellors. When it comes to family violence, legal issues such as intervention orders are often tangled up with housing and tenancy issues, financial and social security issues and, in many sadder cases where children are involved, child protection.

Community legal services like the women’s legal service understand how gendered violence and gendered legal issues manifest. They see it in the 2800 clients that they see each year. That is why I want to thank this service for their support and particularly the conversation and the welcome that they have provided for the affirmative consent laws. In a recent media release they are quoted as saying:

In a relationship involving family violence, sexual abuse is often part of a pattern of violence and controlling behaviour across multiple aspects of a victim-survivor’s life. The fear of force or harm felt by a victim-survivor of family violence can be ongoing. It can be maintained by the accused through subtle and non-verbal ways, meaning that consent for sexual activity is not given freely and voluntarily.

These are really important matters, and I want to commend the women’s legal service for their leadership in prevention of violence against women through their project Starts With Us. This project aims to change the attitudes, cultural norms and social and structural positions that underpin violence against women. The law should be accessible by everyone, no matter their pay cheque or postcode, and I am so proud of organisations and individuals that work tirelessly in this aim, such as the women’s legal service.